About a week and a half ago on October 11th 2018, we lost our beloved Kiara. I have posted about this in the rainbow bridge forums, and it appears that she had liver failure. She is now up in heaven in the rainbow bridge playing with those who were gone before her. I would like to make a distraction and thought I would post a new update on the rest of the flock and how they are doing, plus introduce two new additions to the flock.
I will first introduce the two new additions to the flock as of yesterday. Since Kiara passed, Luna, the peach faced lovebird hasn’t been eating much. I never thought she was close to Kiara, but they were cage neighbours and would flock call each other each morning and each night. Kiara was the only one who could mimic Luna’s peach face sounds perfectly. The others have not been able to and stick to their own sounds. Luna hasn’t been ok since Kiara passed, and we’ve had to hand feed her each day to force her to eat. We tried to put her in a bigger cage along with Nala and Iki, which somehow got her to eat, but Nala and Iki kept bullying her, especially Iki. When they had playtime outside last week Iki grabbed her feet and would not let go and caused luna to bleed. We stopped the bleeding quickly thankfully, but I was extremely shocked that little iki who is timid AND who is herself, always being picked on by Nala, would do something like that. Anyway we did put luna back in her own cage again but then she would not eat again so my partner decided to put her back again with Nala and Iki but with supervision to make her eat and she did. Anyway this was until last Friday when I said I cannot just sit and supervise the three all day and on that day I was the only one home and luna didn’t eat much even when she was with nala and iki. Iki kept kicking her away from food bowls so I told my partner to just put her back in her own cage and handfeed her. He had decided a few days beforehand to look for another peach faced lovebird to be a friend for Luna. He only found a pair about an hour and a half away who could only be picked up on Sunday and no earlier.
So yesterday (Sunday), he went to get them. I have no idea about peach faced mutations since we’ve only had luna, but one is a light green colour and the other is light blue. According to the breeder, the blue one is female, and the green one is male. However, no DNA tests so I honestly would not be surprised if they were both female. They still have black on their beaks, and are apparently 10 weeks old. Roughly the same age that asha, ashu and Ashi were when they came. They can eat on their own but they are aviary birds so very terrified of us. We let them fly around the bedroom yesterday and when putting them back inside the cage my partner said the blue one doesn’t struggle to get away but the green one does. They kind of bully each other a little, like picking on the other one to move out of the way and so on. The blue one seems to be more active and wanting to explore and the green one usually follows. My partner named them Araik and Angel. Araik is the green one, and is actually Kiara’s name spelt backwards, to honour her memory. And Angel is the blue one. They call out to the other ones from the lounge room, and luna knows they are around and calls them back so I am hoping she will feel settled again having more of her own species around her. I’ve tried to get pictures of them but it’s a little hard, Deanna I think you will like their black beaks if you can see the photos properly. I don’t think they are a bonded pair though, I thought he was getting a bonded pair and that that was why he was getting two, but these two are different from the photos I saw, I think the breeder had sold the ones he sent photos of but had these two available too or something. They already seem to be settled in well, they started eating quite quickly after putting them in a cage and drinking water too. But it was a long car trip for them too.
Onto an update on the remainder of the flock. It has been a hectic few months. Everyone is in nest mode here. Once that is over everyone is going to get cage makeovers. I’ll start with Ashi and Koko. Ashi laid an egg awhile back, even though I tried to prevent her and Koko from mating many times. Now because we do not know if Koko is a boy or a girl we decided to leave the egg with ashi and give her a nestbox so she could have her clutch. This was ages ago and nothing hatched and my partner said we can let them try one more time, so we did, and still nothing but she’s still not finished with the three week schedule so once she shows shes’s finished we will remove everything and give her cage a makeover. I am thinking that koko is either a girl or doesn’t know how to mate properly lol. It was interesting how Koko is a pure masked lovebird, and so is Iki and so was Kiara and those two really liked him, but I wonder if they only liked him because he was a masked bird just like them and not because of being a boy as we thought.
My little Asha and ashu, oh boy. Asha decided to make one of her food bowls her nest and laid eggs in there. And she’s still sitting on them. Obviously infertile because Ashu is a girl too. It just seems like a waste of time and energy when she could just be happily playing with toys. Ashu laid an egg too. I tried to put them on a paper towel in the bottom corner of the cage and what did they do? Well Ashu would go and drag that paper towel and CHEW IT. I cannot win lol. So I left the eggs at the bottom corner of the cage without a towel instead. Ashu got out of nest mode and was singing all day and playing, it was so nice to hear her little voice again, but then she went back into nest mode. Asha is still sitting on her eggs and once she’s done I’m making over their cage too and removing that food bowl. It is strange because she had the same bowl in a different colour beforehand but never thought of it as a nest but when I changed it into a purple one she made it her nest. Thankfully those two are strong little girls, they have their little cuttlebone and fresh veggies and seed mix each day. And they do not fight with each other either.
Nala and Iki recently got put into a bigger cage. I was worried about doing that because of Nala and her flight feathers but she is surprisingly an amazing flyer now and they are doing great in a bigger cage. Nala is still the boss of her even bigger kingdom now. We were worried about Iki for a little while because she would never eat straight away in the morning but she would go afterwards and eat instead but we were never sure if she was getting any vegetables or if Nala was gobbling them down for herself. They shared that big cage with luna for a few days on and off, but iki was too mean to luna so no more sharing. Nala wasn’t mean to luna though, only a tiny bit like to make her move out of the way but that’s it, iki was different and completely changed as if she hated luna. Maybe she sees her as a threat to her bond with nala or something.
The conures are doing well. Really noisy, especially Rico the red one. In the morning if she hears us doing something in the lounge room she starts screaming LOUDLY cos their room is still dark (trying to imitate winter hours to make nights longer and days shorter even though we are now approaching summertime). Also, I think she doesn’t like me anymore. Before she used to fly away from me and be afraid when I would change her bowls but now she tries to bite me. It happened so suddenly and everytime I go into the birdie room she will jump up and do like a head bob dance to me. So I wondered does she like me or not? We asked the lady we get our French millet from who we also got the conures from and described the behaviour and she said she does like me but she wants to show me that shes the boss now. Perhaps her hormones have kicked in, as they do in this house! However, I do not think she likes me because just today I’m by myself looking after everyone for the morning and had to put her the vegetables and I couldn’t distract her away from me so I wore a jacket and glove and when I reached into the cage she pecked at me. My partner said previously maybe she just wants to perch on my arm, but nope, she pecked and tried to bite. Yet during outside playtime she still flies to my head like she always has. However the day before she also tried to climb to my face and get my eye or eyelashes so I had to somehow scare her off. So for some reason she does not like me anymore. Perhaps she knows I’m a girl and sees me as a threat now. And because she bites HARD I have to protect my fingers and arms or I wont be able to give anybody their veggies or seeds etc. The little one is also feisty but she’s still easier to get from the cage or from outside when having time out. They love to splash in their water bowl for bath time and make a huge mess and they look funny when soaking wet. Rico still screams at night for an hour after lights out and in the morning or even during the day if I boil water in the kettle or turn the tap on she screams too and I have no idea why. Then Nico will copy her sometimes. I think we need to change their names since I’m certain their girls. Perhaps Rica and Nica.
And little Socrates the ringneck. He still runs around as he always does and does the neck twisting thing, I guess I will never figure out what that means. But he is doing well, and he still likes kovu a lot and does the mating dance when he sees her. We moved the cages around and now he’s directly opposite her so he can see her all day long. He’s become quieter now but because he has started his yearly moult, he was the same last year not screaming and running around during his moult. And still likes scratches from my partner too.
Last but not least, little kovu. She is a brave and strong little girl. She has also put herself in nestmode despite being in her cage alone. She has always been fine on her own, and at the same time I think was happy to have Kiara in her cage with her in her final days. Kovu laid one or two eggs I believe over the last few months just randomly when she was in nest mode. She loves perching on her rabbit toy. I will be honest, I have been a bit worried about her, since what happened to Kiara, I got paranoid and thought kovu’s poops were getting stringy like kiara’s was. There were a few like that but the rest were normal green and white. Yet over the years with all of them their poops have not always remained exactly the same, it has always changed depending on what they have eaten or what vegetables they had and so on. And her behaviour has not changed at all. She’s the most active. And still loves to come out and play on our jacket outside of the cage. Whilst a biter, she is so friendly. Maybe she is going to lay an egg sometime soon since she's in nest mode at the moment and has been spreading her wings to attract a mate recently. Each day I pray and pray that all of them remain healthy and live long happy lives.
Well I guess that’s the end of my lengthy update, I’m so sorry that my posts are always so long, there are so many birds to write about. I have attached link to photos as well of everyone and of the new peach faced lovebirds. They are currently grinding their beak and resting at the moment. I do not have a new photo of Koko though because he still hides and when I tried to get one today, he went into the nest box with Ashi to hide, but I managed to get one of Ashi though.
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZATO8zU
Awwww!!! The two new ones are just precious! I will pray every day for health and happiness for them, your entire flock, and you and your partner!!
I have to say......how do you know which one is which??? Those eye ring lovies are sooooo cute! But look sooooo alike! You and your partner are very, very caring and lovng towards all of them! Thanks for sharing! We will welcome updates anytime!
Thank you so much Ellen, your words always mean a lot, I am always praying for the best health and well-being of the flock too, and I am also always praying and hoping that your little birds at home are also doing well too and in excellent health.
Which ones were you referring to regarding knowing who is who? Hmm well most of them are in their own cages with a friend, apart from socrates the ringneck and luna the peach face. And the pairs are different to each other, with most having their cage mate being a different mutation to the them, apart from Asha and Ashu, the little green ones, who are sisters. With those two, in the beginning I couldn't tell until I realised that Asha didnt have her left flight feather grown in. But once it finally grew in, I had already noticed some differences between the two. For example, Ashu generally has bigger brighter eyes than Asha, and Asha, especially at first always had little sleepy eyes, similar to how kiara did. She still does a little bit. And Asha's tail is more wider, while Ashu's is more pointier. This also made me not believe in the myth that pointier tails in lovebirds indicate a boy. I think those are the main two things that usually lets me know who is who, I will, however admit, that from time to time I'll mistakenly think one is the other, but usually because I didn't see the eyes or tail properly. Also with their favourite seeds, I think Asha is the one who likes safflower more than Ashu, even though Ashu eats it too. When I finish changing their seed bowls in he afternoon each day Asha is always the first to go running to the new food and get some safflower so that would be another indicator. Ashu also flies better than Asha too, so when they have had out of cage time I'll usually know who is who from who flies better since Asha only learnt to fly later on in life after her flight feathers fully grew in.
. Well, I really was not thinking about you getting them, naming them, having different ways to identify tberm, etc???!!!!! I just took a look at all of them, and thought....whom is whom!!!!! Having had 13 birds..4 cockatiels and 9 budgies, all at once, about 12 years ago, I sure remember how I learned how to identify them!!!! Silly me!!!!! And back then there was no extra time for myself! When you have many, it is a busy day, but oh how it enhances our lives!!!
We will watch for updates!
Ahhh... I love the two new peachies and just like you said them big black beaks make me love them more. Black beaks to me means sweet loveable lovebird babies that I can give little body hugs to in my palm of hand. I use to body hug Boomer by sneaking my fingers under his wings and he hated it!! But bad me loved it so he had to put up with it
Your flock is so beautiful and it must be so fun sitting back and watching all of them just be birds together. Araik (green) and Angel are so fluffy and cute in there pictures, sweet little lovies.
I cannot blame you for worrying about your flock because you just don't know if it what Kiara had could be spread to your flock even though the vet did say it was liver disease I know I still would worry just maybe it was something else. But I worry about everything!! I just love reading your posts and seeing all your pictures of your beautiful flock and even though sweet Kiara no longer is there with them no doubt her spirit will forever be with you and your flock. That is so sweet to name the new one Araik and without a doubt Kiara loves it too. Hugs to you and thanks for your wonderful post of your awesome flock.
Fly Free Boomer, we will forever love you.
Aw thats funny, and I can imagine it was really hard when you had the 13 birds all at once, Ellen! I sure know how hectic the household gets with so many birds around, but it is so joyful at the same time. I think its easier for me to identify all of them because everyone is in their own cage either solo or with one friend only, plus they are different colours as well. I also would remember who is with who by their colours for the ones who have cage mates. I also barely have time to myself now either, only at night time when they are sleeping and thats when I sit and do something for myself which is usually just watch TV.
Deanna that is so cute that you would give Boomer body hugs even when he hated them. Upon hearing the many wonderful stories about boomer here, I feel like he may have been a lot like our kovu, more used to humans but also a massive biter. You were definitely more brave with handling boomer, as we usually only have kovu perched on us but not being held because I think she still ha the genetic predisposition to not like a hand coming onto her, but if she sees only a finger she will try to chew it and depending on her mood she either wants to attack it if she's in nest mode, or simply sees it as a toy at other times. I enjoy spending everyday with them all and am glad to be able to be at home for now most of the time to be able to watch them and look after them.
I am the same, I worry about every little thing whether it is about the birds or not, but especially about the birds now too.
It has been just about two weeks since Araik and Angel have been here. My partner introduced them to luna a bit earlier, when I was outside of the house, I came home to see them in the lounge together with him watching them. They had been calling out to each other since they arrived. Araik and Angel have settled in well, it only took them a day or two to feel at home, they eat and drink as usual and boy oh boy they chirp A LOT. They are not as loud as the conures, but they do chirp a lot and all day long. Since they are still babies they like to take naps during the day all while chirping at the same time and have gotten the others chirping with him like nala and iki. A few days ago my partner let them out to fly in a room with luna to see how they would get a long. So far everything went well and luna would just kind of bare her beak if araik or angel got too close to her but she did not purposely attack them and they did not try to attack her either. I did have concerns about them attacking each other, even sweet little luna who has always been bullied and never hurt anyone, but since she's older I did think that she may try to dominate the new little ones. I'm still uncertain if they will be able to co habit together with luna after, it would be great if they could, but if not, at least they can talk to each other from the safety of their cages. But luna is definitely doing a lot better since they have arrived and is eating and drinking normally again. Araik the green one also had his or her first bath the other day too. I haven't seen angel take a bath yet though. The black on their beaks are starting to get more lighter so I think soon they will be faded. I'm quite interested to see how their adult colours will turn out. But I don't know much about peach faced mutations. We have a book here called lovebird compendium which we ordered from Europe about a year and a half ago which we thought was all about looking after lovebirds but only had a small part about caring for them and is actually just a really large breeding book about achieving certain colours etc so I might have a little look at it, maybe I'll be able to see what their adult colours will be.
They appear to be healthy though, poops are excellent, behaviour is normal. I think they may actually teach us a thing or two actually. Over winter we had started to leave the blankets covering three sides of every cage to conceal warmth, something we hadn't done last year, and we did the same for araik and angel and they went down to find some light instead. They're aviary birds so were probably used to natural light outside. I took that as a sign that maybe we shouldn't be leaving the blankets. I've had many worries about the birds most of this year and apart from purchasing a new oil filled heater to use, leaving the blankets was the only other different thing we have done. We are now in the last month of spring but its still cold in my state, the rest of the country is battling 30 degree + celcius temperature while we are still on 16 Celsius or less which is cold. I like the cold so I'm not complaining but I do wonder if we should just take all the blankets away like we used to during the day and only put it at night. I have started to wonder if they were lacking in natural light because of leaving the blankets.
I do wish kiara was still here, and feel that it was unfair that she couldn't be here to meet the two peach faces, and the fact that they wouldn't even be here with us if kiara wasnt gone. The mysteries of the universe I suppose. I hope she is ok now. It has been three weeks and one day since she left us. But I hope she is watching up above and feeling glad that everyone is ok here, or if she's not watching, that she's happy at the rainbow bridge with her new friends there.
Oops I also forgot to mention. The conures have changed their behaviours and quite suddenly. In a good way, partly. The red one, Rico, has especially changed the most and will not be scared of either me or my partner anymore. Before it was just me that she wasnt scared of and it had been difficult trying to clean her cage each day when she would peck at me but now she does it to him too. Apparently its hormones and territorial behaviour that has kicked in or she wants a boyfriend according to the French millet lady who gave them to us lol.
I think I mentioned that she is really noisy now, and her sounds are getting louder. Still screams at bedtime for at least an hour after lights out, probably because she doesnt want to go to bed. But now something else changed, before she would jump away if we tried to catch her, but now she is so easy to catch. My partner wears a cotton glove though because she bites really hard, but he can grab her and preen her and she actually loves it. Previously we could never touch her and when he would catch her she would make like either a warning sound or scared sound constantly as she would be scared, but now she makes her little robot sound, similar to kovu, when being held and preened. I don't get it lol. She's healthy thankfully, I've monitored all poops and behaviours and eating and drinking patterns and she's the same with that. She still screeches if she hears the water running or the kettle boiling each day though. Another thing I thought of is that she is moulting now, as is her little friend, as well as socrates, and we only received them in January this year, so this would be the first time they are with us and moulting, so she might just hate the moulting and thats making her scream more and would explain why she is enjoying being preened too. I also thought of how she would have seen us getting socrates and kovu out of their cages on a daily basis and perhaps has learned that it is safe and would watch my partner preening socrates and want the same. The other lovebirds have learned slowly to let us do things in their cage without flying all over the cages, because kovu would show them that it is safe, so I think its been the same for the conures.
I'll be honest, I was getting frustrated with the screaming and would even fight with my partner and tell him to do something, but I've been trying to calm myself down as well because I know kiara would want all the flock to be ok and I need to have patience and try to understand what rico actually wants. Everyday I tell myself this now. But if its a boyfriend she's not getting oneThey were given to us because the lady thought they were bonded to each other and a breeder would have just separated them. Yet she also thought they were boys, when they are clearly girls from their behaviour
Last edited by marroqui; 11-01-2018 at 07:52 PM.
Thanks for the nice update on your flock! It sounds to me, other than usual bird banter, they are doing well now. Keep the updates coming! I love to read them!
I cant blame you for not wanting to get a boyfriend for Rico, silly girl is just too loud and no doubt she would teach her man how to be loud as well. Boomer was loud but Tikki is somewhat quiet and sweet. He talks more then he cheeps. I am happy the peachies are comfortable now and liking there new life. It is also really nice that Luna comes out with them and has not bitten them yet. Yep, you figured Boomer out he was a loud chirper with a big heart to all humans. He loved it when people came over to our house to visit and would always have to fly over to them and check them out. Lots were afraid of him at first but before they left they all loved him, he was very people friendly and if he suspected someone didn't like them he got right into there face and charmed them everytime. Tikki is the same way so perhaps it is because both birds are loner birds and a big part of there lives is spent sitting on there humans.
You house sounds so lovely and loud at times too but that is expected with so many birds. Thanks for the updates and have fun and enjoy those lovely screaming birds of yours
Fly Free Boomer, we will forever love you.
Hi everyone.
I just thought I would provide an update and pictures of the flock on this thread. I'll start with the peach faces since there is more news on them. As I've mentioned above we got two baby peach faced friends for Luna, to keep her company after Kiara passed away. This really helped Luna and made her happy. We put the three of them together in one cage and Luna was quick to join them excitedly in their cage. But sadly Angel (the blue one) did not seem to like her, and kept chasing her away from all the food and perches. Araik, the green one not so much, if anything, he kept trying to get luna to feed him lol. Luna was a bit scared of Angel too, but not Araik. So alas, we had to put luna back by herself again. But this made her sad again. She was so happy, probably because she did not know that Angel would not like her, but now that she found out, she was back to being sad and not eating much again. So in the middle of November, my partner travelled again one hour each way to the same person that he got Angel and Araik from, and got ANOTHER peach faced lovebird. This time only one. We have named him or her Astro. Funny thing, he first named her Estrella, then he thought it was a boy so changed it to Astro, but now I think its a girl because of she digs into the food bowls a lot lol. But anyway I'll refer to her as Astro. She was 11 weeks old when she came so I think she should be about 4 months now almost. She did not come with a black beak though. And her eyes are red. She is a yellow colour and has red on her head too. Her and luna immediately got along so well once they were introduced. They would preen each other, and still do. They eat together, they sit together. We were so amazed to see how well they got along with each other and relieved that this has helped luna a lot. She is much happier now. And they both have Araik and Angel as their cage neighbours. Sometimes Astro will hang on her cage bars looking at Araik and Angel as well. But we will not let her play with them outside. We do not want her to abandon luna, so they are fine as cage neighbours.
Speaking of Araik and Angel, their colours have changed so so much. I cannot believe my eyes when I look at them now compared to when they arrived 2 months ago. They have lost the black in their beak. Araik, especially, has changed a lot. He is becoming a very light green colour and his head is so so red. So different! If you look at the previous pictures from before you will see how different they look. They have settled in well, and are very noisy all day. And they fly around their cage and play a lot. They are so active which is good. They love all their toys and chew them all up and love every vegetable that we give them. They definitely adapted to eating vegetables much quicker than anyone else did! They are also the first to wake up in the morning now and to tweet to everyone and they all reply. We live near train tracks too and the train passes a few times a day so it can be very loud hearing the honk, and when it passes twice in the night time they hear it and wake up and chirp to the others. Always these two first lol.But they seem really really happy. And it is amazing watching them grow and develop these new colours too.
Ashi and Koko - previously we had them with a nest box, but nothing ever hatched, so after her third clutch was done and she showed signs that she was finished we re-did their cage and took the box out. Ashi adapted very quickly to her changes and went out of her nest mode. She loves to chew her toys, especially one curvy ladder one that she has. And she's naughty and keeps trying to tip her food bowl all the time. She did try to get into nest-mode again when we put her a new food bowl so we removed that food bowl and gave hem a few smaller bowls instead so she wouldn't see them as places to lay eggs. We think Koko is a girl now, well at least I do, my partner still hasn't decided what he thinks lol. And Koko is so annoying to ashi. She will be chewing a toy, and he will go and try to kick her away from it. He used to do it when they still had the eggs and box, so we assumed it was a sign of him wanting her to go and sit on her eggs instead of being outside. But now there is no excuse. And when she moves away from a toy he does not even play with it. He's just being an annoying naughty little boy or girl. But Ashi is strong and can push back and will chirp to him in an angry way to tell him no I'm playing leave me alone and most of the time he stops.
Kovu is also doing well. I sometimes still feel sad when I watch her because I feel like we let her down because we could not save her friend. But she is so brave. She is so happy when she gets a new toy and destroys them in no time. She has Ashi and Koko has her neighbours on her left, and Nala and Iki are her neighbours to the right. They always talk with one another, especially Nala, she is always talking to her, and imitating her sounds in her own nala voice. She loves to eat safflower, most of them have changed their preferred seeds, and kovu now loves safflower. Actually everyone has taken a liking to safflower now, and surprisingly, Asha and Ashu now prefer oats, something they never liked before, Ashu likes the hulled oats, and Asha likes the longer unhulled oats. Kovu gets time out regularly and loved to play on our jackets and chew them. She loves her rabbit toy and when she gets celery to eat will still go and try to make a nest on the rabbit, but we remove it at the end of the day so her hard work is for nothing
Nala and Iki - they are alright, we had to take one of their toys away though because they were using it for perching and possibly sleeping at night, and its not made for that. But we gave them another toy instead to play with and they are enjoying it. But I think they miss Ashu and Asha a lot. Ashu and Asha stay in our bedroom at the moment while Ashu is healing, and I think nala, especially misses having them next to her. She is the one who always replies Asha when Asha will call out to everyone in the morning. We sometimes bring them over to talk to one another face to face but not for the whole day, just here and there. Nala and Iki also have decided they are not oat people anymore, and have also taken a liking to safflower seeds. They love their bigger cage and calais doing great, she is an amazing flyer in there.
Socrates the ringneck is still moulting, his tail is smaller now. But this year he is not as quiet as he was last year. He is always running around screaming. And in the mornings he starts screaming earlier, my partner always has to go in there to tell him to be quiet because his screams are louder. But he usually screams when the conures start making a fuss. Socrates still adores kovu and will do his little mating dance whenever she is near. He still loves scratches on his head. He is not as bald as he was last year when he was moulting but we can tell he is moulting still because of all the moulted feathers we find and his tail is so tiny now. But it will grow back in no time.
The conures rico and Nico - we had a hectic November with them. We thought we were going to lose Nico. She showed signs of illness and was stargazing a lot all of a sudden one day. We did not know what was going on but she started sleeping a lot too. The day after we really thought she was going to die, she kept flying back and forth in her cage and we lowered all the bowls and perches in the cage to the bottom as well, as recommended by an online vet at the time. She was still eating though, just looked like she was dizzy or tired a lot. We think she either had dehydration or diarrhoea. The day that we thought she was going to leave us her poop had turned red all of a sudden and we did not know if it was blood or not. Thankfully she made it through the night and the next day we took her to the local vet, who examined her and saw her poop, and said it did look a bit more watery than he liked which to him indicated possible kidney problems. we mentioned her behaviour too and he prescribed the pssitavet that we gave to kiara. He said to just sprinkle it on her food and just for two days. So we did, and we observed her eating it. It was easier to get her to eat because she would eat by herself on top of the cage outside in the morning. Also when we spoke with an online vet they, as usual, mentioned giving a balanced diet including pellets. On the spur of the moment, we decided to give them pellets. My partner went and got these nectar pellets, and South American pellets made for South American birds. We gave it with the seeds. To our shock, BOTH conures LOVED the pellets. This was in November, and now they are still enjoying pellets. I could not believe it. We really think the pellets saved Nico's life. Her poops became normal again, her behaviour improved, she wasn't talking a lot yet, but pretty soon afterwards, she became her normal self again. We think they may have eaten pellets with the first owners, and then the person we got them from probably did not give pellets and then neither did we: until now. It was like they knew the pellets and loved them so much. The vitamins must have really helped with her dehydration or diarrhoea. We also thought maybe she ate rotten fruit or something because they eat a lot of fruits, her and rico. She is herself again, and we did not lose her and we were and are so grateful for that. We decided to try to give a tiny tiny sprinkle of pellets to everyone after this, they don't have to eat it, but if they decide to, then that is great, just for a little bit of vitamins. And everyone gets their fruits or vegetables on alternate days now, not everyday anymore. Except socrates and the conures, they get their fruits everyday.
With Ashu and Asha, I have mostly updated on those two in my other thread about Ashu. They are doing alright and they stay in our bedroom instead of the birdie room. I do worry about little Ashu and her little leg, I feel she is in pain, but she is eating normally and poops are normal. And she does chirp a lot with the others.
And the final part: pictures! This is a link to their recent photos, I think I was able to get one of everyone:
https://imgur.com/a/VJ21Lei
Pay close attention to how much Araik and Angel have changed colours
Hi, Laila! Happy New Year to you, your partner, and your gorgeous, happy flock. And thanks too for the lovely update you have written. It has been a bittersweet year for you, and I think you have handled it with much inner strength and courage, and have brought in some beautiful new lovebirds to the flock. Usually, red or ruby eyes indicate Lutino mutation. The new ones sound to be very healthy, and happy. I am glad the pellets are working out for you. They will give them variety, and also the vitamins your vet felt were needed.
I wish for you a fun and awesome journey with your happy flock in the coming year. We will always welcome updates!
(((((((Hugs))))))). Ellen
Last edited by maxollie; 01-05-2019 at 04:14 PM.
Thanks Ellen and happy new year to you and your 2 little birdies too! I have heard of latino mutations but never understood what that meant, how interesting! I am also glad the pellets are working as well. Its just an addition to their daily seeds and occasional vegetables and fruits. So far it is only the conures who love their pellets. The rest have not really bothered with them yet but we only sprinkle a few in each bowl and perhaps if they bit into one they may get some sort of vitamin from them. We won't push the pellets nor follow the rule of feeding a majority of pellets only, but after watching Nico completely transform after eating pellets, we thought we would try to corporate them a little in their diets whether they try them or not.
I had forgotten to mention also, regarding the conures. Rico is a really mean bully sometimes. While Nico was sick, she did not hassle her at all, she was protecting her a lot if anything. But now that Nico is doing well again, Rico is extremely mean to her for no reason. I think I have mentioned this in one of my other updates, and how we did ask our French millet lady about this and that she said Rico wants to show us that she is the boss. It used to only happen when we would walk into the birdie room and she would just keep pushing and pushing little Nico down to the ground. But now in the early morning I have heard Nico calling out in pain and Rico makes a noise after it too but like her bossy noise. I think she is hurting her every morning and I do not know why. I think she has been plucking at Nico's head because if she bends her head a bit its bare and bald. I know that they are animals and think different to us, and my partner always tries to remind me of this... but sometimes I feel really upset with rico to the point where I just do not like her anymore because of her extreme behaviour change. I do not care if she was to show she is bossy to me - go right ahead - but why is she picking on her only little friend? I feel like it is so so cruel. They have one toy at the bottom near where they sleep I their cage and they do play with it and chew it because I saw it all chewed, and I did wonder if it is that area where this is happening in the mornings. It is when they are still blanketed at 5 or 6 in the morning but most of them are awake then even though we do not remove the blankets. We have tried separation them but they would just keep climbing around looking for each other. However the longest they had been separated was about an hour, and in that time Nico would not eat without her friend. Furthermore, something else I do not understand - sometimes I will try to tell Rico "NO, NO, DO NOT DO THAT" in the hope that she eventually understands, but she is honestly like a very naughty and uncontrollable 5 year old child! She does not listen, and what I do not understand is when I do that, little Nico will go and DEFEND HER. Why would she do that if I'm trying to protect her by telling her friend no? Why is she protecting the one that bullies her? It breaks my heart to see this behaviour each day. It has gotten to the point where I will now only handle them or their cage if I absolutely have to, my partner deals with them because I just got fed up of the bossy and bullying behaviour. I did say I'll care for everyone else no matter how long it takes to change food and waters and the cleaning etc, but that he can deal with the conures because it just breaks my heart seeing her plucked head and still seeing her defending or wanting to be with her friend.
Should we try to separate them permanently? What if they do not eat. Rico will eventually go and eat, but Nico doesn't but as I mentioned above the longest they were separated was an hour and this was months ago. Today we removed the toy that they were chewing a lot incase this is where the plucking was happening, so we will see if tomorrow morning whether we hear the painful cries or not and may end up having to separate them. Even socrates starts screaming when he hears Nico making the painful cry. I think he likes Nico too, as when I used to get her and hold her in front of him he would do his mating dance to her like he does to kovu. But I do not think he likes rico. He used to scream when I would try to change the conures in the past and rico would keep trying to attack me. I used to think that he was trying to protect rico but my partner said no he thinks he was trying to protect me instead from rico lol.
I have never seen any of our birds be so mean or have such a bossiness problem the way rico does now. Even kovu when she was annoying our beloved kiara, she would only act like that if she was in nest mode. Eventually they were separated because kovu always seemed to be in nest mode at one point and wouldn't let kiara eat from any of the bowls, but it was never as bad as the way rico is behaving now. I don't know what happened. I don't think she is in nest mode. And when I did catch them mating a couple of times ages ago, it was rico who was on top of Nico, which to me indicated Nico was the one who wanted to lay some eggs. No eggs wth these two though and would rather it did not occur. And I have not caught them mating in a long time. Rico has got me at my wits end these days. Most of the day I do stay with Ashu though anyway, but when I do walk into the other birdie room it starts all over again with the bossiness and bullying.
Oh my goodness the pictures are all so cute!! Ashi really is hard into a molt with her little spotted head but soon she is going to be fully colored and so pretty. I loved all of your flocks pictures. Your two conures remind me of Tikki just the way they hold there heads looks like Tikki except of course Tikki is a pineapple greencheek and Rico and Nico are not. I would absolutely love sitting with you and your partner and spending time with you super cute flock, lucky you to have so many cuties. I can only imagine how cute the noises and the birds are to watch. I hope little Ashu and Asha can join the rest of the flock one day soon. I admit I am a sucker for lovebirds, especially peachfaces. Those fat heads keep me smiling forever
We offer Pellets to all our family birds and everyday all of them will eat them along with lots of fresh foods and seed mixes. Tikki has to be one of the best eating birds I ever met. He loves everything you give him so he has the best diet out of all of them. My sisters big Cockatoo Sam and Amazon Mango eat meat too and chicken is there favorite! It is cannibalism but don't tell them because my sisters vet said it is great for them.
I am happy they are all doing so well too and hope soon
Fly Free Boomer, we will forever love you.
I know it is difficult to understand bird behavior. It tears at our heartstrings! They do live in a bird world, but it is well documented that they do feel emotional and physical pain. It also is quite common for two females to have issues, more so than two males together, or a pair. You are caught in the middle with these two, because separating them seems to upset them, but yet, one is dominating the other. My suggestion is to speak to your partner's Spanish vet. Tell him or her what is happening with these two. Also, ask your local vet you use. I am wondering if there is someway, to build a larger cage,, where there is a wire center like a breeder cage, where they could still be closer to each other, but yet be safe, so that no injuries or worse will ever occur. Birds can fatally injure each other. I definitely would be sad to hear this news, because you have been through so much heartbreak already
Thanks Ellen, yeah it is difficult to understand their behaviour and why they do certain things. They do live simple and sweet little lives but sometimes they seem so cruel, in Rico's case. We tried something new, we decided to put Nico in a separate cage for bedtime, and to let her go back in Rico's cage during the day. So far this works. No painful cries every morning because they are not together. Although Rico is still a bully, sometimes I walk into the room and they are hanging on their cage together and she will just push and push Nico down very roughly for no reason. Only because I walked into the room. I adore them but Rico is really getting on my nerves with her behaviour. For me, she is like an uncontrollable 5 year old child! I do not know what happened to her, but she is definitely the biggest bully of the whole flock. But at least the plucking is to a minimum, and hopefully Nico's feathers can grow in again, She has a bald patch on her head so my partner decided to separate them for bedtime. And Nico would still go and eat just before bed this time, unlike the other times, so that was a relief. He did try to call the Spanish vets but he has said that for some reason it just rings out and no one answers and we're not sure why. It is a 24 hour emergency vet so surely they did not close during the break, and I think the holidays are over now, unless they aren't over in Spain.
Everyone else is doing well though, I am really happy to see luna so happy these days with her lutino friend Astro. But Astro is so so messy. she digs and digs into her bowl to toss her seeds all over the place and practically empties the bowl. She would then go to the cage bottom to eat what she dropped sometimes lol. I'm thinking to get a no mess feeder bowl for them, because they are not bowl tippers like the others (yet) so it might be suitable for them and to contain the mess. I'll sweep the room after changing and cleaning them and 5 minutes later she is digging her seeds outBut to see luna how she is now is amazing, and she is a little bit more active than usual, she has always been quite sedentary as she was always alone but I think astro is showing her to play with toys and yesterday I saw luna climbing around the cage which was nice to see.
Everyone just chirps and chirps all day long. Asha is especially loud from the other bedroom and she has turned into a mini kovu mimicking all her words. On hot days we give them more vegetables to keep cool. We are in the middle of summer and its started to heat up again, even in this supposedly cold state that we live in.
Deanna thanks for your kind words too! You mentioned Ashi is hard into her moult, but did you mean someone else? You mentioned spots, so perhaps you meant Astro? Ashi is one of the hybrids, so she looks like a blue fishers but with more black on her head. Astro is the yellow lutino. Or perhaps you meant one of the other peach faces? They are the ones whose colours are changing dramatically. It is definitely very nice to watch, I wish you could be here too! It would be so lovely to have you guys nearby and not countries apart! I remember Tikki's photos, and his eyes remind me of Rico's eyes, but I believe he would be of Nico's species as a green cheek conure cos of the size. For some reason Nico's eyes are different, and I have always wondered why? They are not the same as Rico's or Tikki's, I don't think she's a hybrid kind of conure, but maybe she's half and half of another conure species, maybe red crimson ones like her friend?
I think the conures are similar to the birds in tour family, they eat more variety, and are still eating their pellets, with their seeds and fresh fruit and vegetables. Everyone else is stubborn and have their preferences. That is interesting about your sister's amazon and cockatoo, and I have read here on the bird information area that they can eat boiled chicken and that it is healthy for them too, but I have never given that to my birds. I did try to give eggs a long time ago but they didnt try them so I never tried again.
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